The View of the Soviet Authorities (Politburo, NKYU, NKID, etc.) of the 1923 Catholic Clergy Trial

Abstract

The article examines some previously unknown details of the 1923 Catholic clergy trial, which took place on March 21—26, 1923. According to the plans of the Soviet authorities, the trial was closely connected with the alleged trial against Patriarch Tikhon and was supposed, firstly, to demonstrate the same attitude towards both the Orthodox and the Catholic Church, and secondly, to serve as a kind of “trial balloon” for the future trial against the Patriarch. Most researchers consider the trial an important milestone in the anti-religious and anti-church policies of the Soviet government. Charges were brought against 15 priests and one layman, all of them were given various sentences. The trial attracted attention of foreign politicians and the world community, which entailed a number of negative consequences for Soviet foreign policy. The document attached to this article is being published for the first time and is a description of the last days of the St. Petersburg prelate Konstantin Budkevich, one of two people sentenced to death at this trial (the second person was Archbishop Jan (John) Tseplyak). He was executed on March 31, 1923 (J. Tseplyak execution was replaced by ten years of imprisonment). The document was drawn up by other convicted priests who were kept in the same cell with him.